Interior of Sas-Bahu temple, Gwalior Fort. 2772

Photograph of the interior of the Great Sasbahu Temple at Gwalior, in Madhya Pradesh, from an Album of Miscellaneous views in India, taken by Deen Dayal in c.1882. The great fortress of Gwalior is perched on long narrow hill that rises more than 100 m above the plain. Many palaces and temples were built on the flat plateau on the top of the hill, including the two Sasbahu (‘mother-in-law and daughter-in-law’)temples, erected in 1093 by the Kacchapaghatas. The larger temple consists of a sanctuary adjoining a triple-storey mandapa or hall with three projecting porches. A pyramidal roof covers mandapa but the tower over the sanctuary has collapsed. The walls, the doorways and the ceilings preserve some of the foliate decoration but the figural panels on the walls have not survived. This is a view of the interior of the temple after restoration work, showing the fine carved work on the pillars after the whitewash and chunam had been removed. The modern lintels supporting the cracked ceiling were placed in position by General Cunningham in 1844.